[Tango-L] Colgadas milongueras & other non-entities

[Charles Roques]

Ron wrote:

<<I still hold by the statement that 'Milongueros don't use colgadas and 
volcadas'. So therefore it is incorrect to attach 'milonguero/a' to the end of a 
step that milongueros don't use. 

If someone can provide video proof of an authentic milonguero (not a 
self-proclaimed merchant of 'milonguero-style tango') using a colgada or 
volcada, please share it. (The one provided previously doesn't meet the 
standard.) And I don't mean the slight lean that may occur on SOME occasions 
with a calesita. Volcar means 'to fall', not 'to lean'.>>

Ron is correct.  In Spanish volcar means to knock over, cause to fall, etc. and the term refers to causing the follower to be "off balance" and over-leaning.  Puentes (bridges) leading into calesitas are much more subtle.  Colgar means to hang and the past tense is colgada or hung, which is what the follower does with her leg.  It is generally a show-off stage step and something that milongueros do not do, so in a sense the term volcada or colgada milonguera is oxymoronic.  The younger generation of dancers, especially foreigners who feel free to interpret what they think milongueros do, are responsible for spreading this step around.  If anyone tried this step in Sin Rumbo or Sunderland they would probably kick someone because it takes up too much space.   Even Carlos Gavito who extended the lean of a puente into his trademark "carpa" step would never do the step on a social dance floor.  In fact even that was a mistake and the result of doing a puente on a slippery floor and sliding apart (which he states in the biography "Carlos Gavito, Su Vida, Su Tango.")
Cheers,
Charles